The oil rich Nigerian nation has come to a complete halt as the people of the country are going for massive demonstrations and strikes, protesting against the Government’s decision to hike the fuel prices to a great extent.
The Nigerian Government has decided to end their multi- billion dollar subsidy on fuel and with this decision, the prices of petrol at the pumps has almost got doubled overnight. Police opened fire in the capital city of Lagos and that killed 3 demonstrators and wounded almost twenty.
All banks, gas stations and airports are closed throughout the country and all busy streets of Nigeria are quiet and empty, for the fear of violence and protests. The security climate of the climate is already threatened as there is a Muslim versus Christian war going on, with Churches being bombed and innocent, ordinary people killed.
The battle has been named Occupy Nigeria and it has been drawn along the lines of Occupy Wall Street. The sudden and abrupt increase of oil price may put an inflationary pressure on the poor Nigerians in the form of increase in prices of food, telecommunications and other essential goods.
Economists and Government thinkers say that cutting down fuel subsidy is an important step of reducing poverty in the long term. It is a sad thing that in spite of being the largest producer of crude oil, Nigeria has to import all of its gasoline, thanks to the failure of their political leadership.
The corruption of the successive governments have lead to massive mis-appropriation of funds as per development of the refineries are concerned. Most of the refineries operate at 25% efficiency, resulting in huge losses.
